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Showing posts from November, 2021

Food companies and their misleading labels

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Food is for nutrition and to provide the body with energy and vital nutrients. Names of foods help us to know what the likely ingredients might be in it. But often, we notice that food names are misleading. They can fool a person into buying only to realize that it did not meet their expectations and imagination. For instance, take the example of samosa. An ideal samosa is refined wheat flour (maida) wrap with mashed potatoes and boiled peas inside. And when we say paneer samosa (cottage cheese stuffed fried dumplings), the picture that comes to our mind is of a wrap of refined wheat flour dough with paneer inside. But to your disappointment, you will find that these samosas are nothing but the normal samosas with mashed potatoes with or without boiled peas and just 1 small piece of cottage cheese at one corner!!! If we talk about rusks, most of these are made of refined wheat flour or maida which is not healthy. Maida is stripped of all the vital nutrients such as fiber, vitamins,
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A novel drug against coronavirus is under study at Washington University School of Medicine in the USA

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 Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in the US have developed a new antiviral compound that blocks covid virus from entering human cells. They have named this compound MM3122. They state that if given early in the disease course they could reduce severity of the dreaded illness.  Mechanism of action of MM3122 The compound acts on the key human protein called transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2). Covid-19, other coronaviruses and influenza virus uses this protein to enter and infect human cells. James W Janetka, senior author of this study states: “Great vaccines are now available for SARS-CoV-2, but we still need effective antiviral medications to help curb the severity of this pandemic,”  “The compound we are developing prevents the virus from entering cells,” They want to develop an oral form of this inhibitor that could help in covid infection and minimize its severity. The authors add that the compound also blocks another related protein called matriptase. M
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Henna hair dye: safety, usefulness, and limitations.

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 Henna is a natural temporary coloring agent obtained from leaves and tender stems of the plant,  Lawsonia imtermis. Used on skin and hair, it gives a typical brownish orange hue to the part.  Henna and hair color Henna gives a typical color to the hair. It hides whites but does not blacken it unfortunately. Hence it is not a versatile hair dye. It also takes many hours to produce effect. The color though natural is not permanent. But how safe is it? Henna for hair and its safety Since henna is natural, it is a natural tendency to think that it is a safe option to the chemical dyes for hair. But is it so really? Henna does not penetrate into hair shaft and only remains on the hair surface. Hence it sits there preventing any hair conditioner to reach the hair cuticle. Hence hair could become lifeless and brittle with repeated use. Henna per se does not condition the hair.  Though predominantly non-allergic, henna does have a low allergic tendency. But some cases of allergy could be due
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People and experts and their opinion on coronavirus vaccine

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 There are two types of vaccines for coronavirus namely the inactivated one that is an old technology and the second type is the mRNA vaccine that is manufactured by a new technology. While the first one remains outside human cells and triggers antibody formation, the second one enters the body cells, becomes part of them and then trains the body to synthesize antibodies. Many people are hesitant to have the second type of vaccine though they are comfortable with the first one and prefer it.  When 32-year-old Jade Lim, a vet from Singapore opted for Sinovac-Coronavac (the inactivated vivid vaccine) instead of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine (mRNA vaccine), her friends and relatives could not believe. She says: “ As a healthy person with a good immune system, I feel that it wasn’t necessary to take something that would trigger so much reaction in the body,” “Also … what’ll happen 50 years later (is something) we wouldn’t know, whereas inactivated virus (vaccines) have been used for decades.”
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